Which GPU?

[ShockDiamonds]

Who is using what these days? Still on the RTX 3080. Has served me well but time to change. Building a new flight sim machine next month or so, depending on parts availability.

Initial plan was to swap i7 12700k CPU for the latest gen. But that became an AMD switch, to mobo and 9800X3D when the latest Intel gen didn’t seem too well suited to gaming. Had planned on trying to get hold of an RTX 5080 once supply was available but then the recent news about ROPs (whatever that is, I just know it impacts performance) and so on has put me off. And seems the 9070XT whilst not quite a 5080 equal, will give me what I want which is basically 60fps in 1440p (also getting a new OLED monitor currently on 1080p 32”) or 35fps with everything maxed up in the Quest 2. Still on MSFS2020 as too many aircraft still not stable in 24.

So anybody on AMD? Nvidia cards always been reliable for me. AMD CPU too? Did you switch from Intel? Windows 11 makes it a lot easier these days apparently.

[Matty]

I'm on a 3080 and I've not found a game that I can't get 60fps @1440p with everything on high, especially with DLSS.

At the moment, I'd wait until the dust has settled 5000 series release and the new AMDs. Bit take into account that the new DLSS4 is a big game changer, so consider that before jumping ship to AMD.

Lastly. VRAM is the next thing. I wouldn't buy a card that has less than 16GB, which means for me jumping from a 3080, my only option would be a 5080....and that's a biiiiig investment. Not sure it's worth it for 1440p.

[ShockDiamonds]

The only way I can get close to 60fps in flight sim is using Lossless Scaling and with the new IniBuilds A350 it has a habit of freezing the screen. Not too fussed because building a new system as I say but yeah, 16GB is the min entry point these days (at least for flight sim). 9070XT is 16gig although it’s DDR6 not 7 as in the the RTX5080 although not sure that makes a huge difference.

As always with me, I’m in a rush. If it takes months to get a 5080 I’ll run out of patience and try the full (both CPU and GPU) AMD option.

As an aside, saw that Nvidia has 90% market coverage these days which is just nuts.

[Matty]

Yeah, pretty much everyone goes nVidia these days due to widespread support and DLSS being what it is.

The 5070 and the new AMD 9070 cards go on sale in March; however if you can't wait then the choice would be a 4080 with 16GB - the 5000 series isn't a huge performance jump, plus they both support the same fancy features like Frame Generation stuff...or try and grab a 5080 when the stock drops, but I think things will settle in that department in the new few weeks.

[ShockDiamonds]

Yeah waiting a month or so is no probs I wasn’t planning on spending the money until later this month at the earliest. But if I get into April and still no 5080 is on the cards (which I suspect may be the case) then the AMD option looks interesting and I’m then getting into the realm of updating a Windows installation in-situ (replacing Nvidia drivers with AMD) as I really don’t want to have to do a fresh install if can be avoided.

[Beany]

What Matty said, but give it a week for the 9070XT reviews to drop.

If you don't need to spend £1000 on a GPU, then why should you? Nvidia would like you to not think about that too much.

9070XT looks like 7900XTX performance in regular raster (IE traditional drawing performance) and around 4070Ti/5070Ti performance in raytracing, at least according to AMDs own numbers, which can be cherry picked - but not by much - and ray-tracing really isn't a killer feature - yet - because the consoles can't do it decently, and that's what everyone targets for.

That, and the 50-series launch has been an absolute fucking joke - cards sent out without the right number of ROPs (which for reference, would have had to go through TSMC and Nvidias QC...), reports of melting power cables (not just on the 5090, either), drivers have been fucked for the last month, etc. That's the sort of hubris 90% market share gets you.

If you're not looking at 4K, and if - and that's a big if - AMDs update to FSR is as good as it looks from previews at CES, which were pretty impressive - then that might be a better choice. Multi-frame (as opposed to 'double frame') generation is a waste if you're not getting 60-100fps already and are running a very, very high refresh monitor - over 200hz.

Absolutely wait till the 9070XT reviews are out - buying something this week would be an objectively poorly informed call. I mean, not like you can buy a 50-series anyway, and if you can, it ain't at MSRP - £900 for a (""midrange"") 5070ti card that by most current accounts should barely outperform a £600-£700 card would be a poor choice.

[ShockDiamonds]

Yeah I’ll be waiting for the 9070XT reviews. What’s of interest is whether going for an entirely AMD setup means I need to reinstall Windows or whether 11 really can just deal with it. Fresh install is obviously better it’s just a faff.

[Beany]

It'll likely be fine, just be sure to undo any full disk encryption (Bitlocker etc) beforehand, as IIRC that relies on local hardware to an extent (I'm being vague because I've not supported Windows for over a decade now, so I'm not entirely sure)

Windows is waaay better that supporting hardware moves than it was before, but if you want to be safe, bang £100 on a USB harddrive and do a proper backup, and then post install recovery to the new hardware - that's worked pretty reliably since Windows XP IIRC using Microsofts own tools.

[Matty]

Yeah I'd do a full wipe for a full system move...always nice to have a clean system if it's been more than about 3 years as well, Windows/apps still like to leave behind all kinds of shit despite the improvements.

I've found that since the days of OneDrive and easy backup software like Macrium, doing full re-installs is far less painful than it used to be!

[mr_jon]

No need to wipe of you don't want to. Presuming you have a microsoft account linked to windows activation? Just ensure you know the address and password.

[ShockDiamonds]

Well I guess from my perspective full wipe is ultimately more sensible in terms of eradicating all trace of previous Intel presence. But yes I have the account details and can reactivate it. And I’m morally happy with that because it will be the same drive in the same case.

[Beany]

Oh, in case it wasn't clear, don't buy a 5070.

The reviews today have been fucking scathing and that's in the context of people not exactly singing the praises of the 5070ti

9070/9070XT reviews tomorrow, hints being dropped by reviewers are that it's a much more interesting proposition. For good reasons.

[ShockDiamonds]

Yep GN were even more scathing than usual on the 5070. Wouldn’t be getting one of those regardless because some of those charts seemed to suggest it wasn’t much better than my 3080. Natively anyway.

[ShockDiamonds]

9070XT looks decent. If I cannot get hold of a 5080 by the end of the month for example, I’ll go full AMD.

[Beany]

Yeah I've had a quick skim and it looks like the 9070XT punches above it's weight in MSFS, jostling elbows with the 5080, which I didn't expect as it that's an exception.

If MSFS is your main deal, I'd be hunting down some more specific benchmarks on that.

Even as a general AMD fan, that was quite a surprise. Seems Space Marine II is similarly good on the 9070XT, too, but those appear to be outliers. But if that's your bread and butter, that's not a bad thing.
(timestamped videos)

[RobYob]

Rumours of AMD only supplying a tiny amount of headlining price MSRP cards and everything else getting as bad as Nvidia.

Hopefully that is a result of conservative initial production orders rather than a long term strategy.

Be nice to see Intel get some more market share too Battlemage reviewed well although lower power than it sounds like what you're after for MSFS.

[Beany]

Yeah, it blows goats, overall.

[ShockDiamonds]

So provided I can get one, based on the reviews I’ll be getting the Sapphire Nitro+ from Scan. Something like £730 which considering what I paid for the 3080 a few years ago (around £850) seems ok. Certainly next to the £1500 for the 5080 which yes is better but not twice-the-cost-better.

Quite excited by this tbh not really had cutting edge hardware before for the flight sim. Hopefully I’ll be able to finally fly the FBW A380 at something approaching decent rates.

ETA will probably now have to make the switch to FS24 though in order to fully get the benefit. Single thread in FS20 is a PITA.

[Beany]

I've got a Nitro+ 7800XT and can verify that Sapphire make damned nice cards - very much the best AIB option for well engineered AMD cards. Just, er, check the size of it, like because they do not skimp on the cooling solution...

My 7800XT just fits in my Fractal Torrent Compact, and the 9070XT is slightly bigger, to the extent that I decided if I could get a 9070XT (I couldn't) I'd just get the Pulse, as it'd definitely fit - it's about 10mm shorter

7800XTTorrentCompact.jpg (58.88 KiB) Viewed 3785 times

I wouldn't mind so much but the Torrent Compact ain't a fucking MiniITX case or owt....

https://www.fractal-design.com/products ... ack-solid/

[Matty]

Seems like a decent upgrade

Plus the 3080 still fetches decent money (about £350 on eBay, or CeX will give you £290), so bang-for-buck it's a good step up for reasonable cost.